Attorney blog on criminal record sealing, record expungement, Florida Law and cases of interest.

Florida Law

A change to Florida's DUI suspension review will have a major impact on drivers charged with being under the influence. There’s now an option to avoid the automatic hard license suspension. But does this mean people are being coerced into waving away a very important right?

As Florida law stands, a driver who refuses to take a breathalyzer test, or who takes one and blows over a .08 receives an automatic suspension starting immediately, independent of the criminal case. This is an administration license suspension (ALS).

You wouldn’t know it by our recent high-profile cases – the Casey Anthony and George Zimmerman trials, where not-guilty verdicts impelled collective facepalms among much of a dismayed public – but Florida abounds with wrongful convictions.

The Current State of Civil Rights Restoration in Florida—An Unfair Divide?

On March 9th, 2011 the Florida Executive Clemency Board amended the rules allowing restoration of civil rights to ex-felons. Non-violent offenders now have to wait 5 years from the time their sentence is completed to apply for restoration of their rights to vote, sit on a jury, and hold public office. For violent offenders, the wait time is 7 years. At that time ex-offenders may apply to the Clemency Board to have their civil rights restored. Read More

Ok, so you have recently been arrested. You are nervous, anxious, and do not know what is going to happen next. We see many clients in this situation and they often ask us the most important question..."Am I going to have to go to jail?"

Each case is ultimately different and the potential defenses have to be determined by an experienced criminal defense lawyer based on the facts of your case. However, some of the more common defenses to drug possession cases are:

No.Many people think they have to wait a certain amount of time before they can seal or expunge a case. That is not correct. Once the case is closed and you are not under court supervision (house arrest, probation, etc.) you can immediately begin the sealing or expungement process.

No. If the petit theft case is currently open or you are under court supervision like probation, house arrest, community control, etc. you have to wait until the case is closed and you are off court supervision before the case can be sealed or expunged.

Once the case is closed, we can immediately start the sealing or expungement process.

Yes, drug charges are one of the most common types of cases that are sealed and expunged in the State of Florida. You will qualify to seal or expunge your marijuana case/charge as long as you were not convicted for the charge and you have never been convicted of any other criminal offense.

Yes. Florida law does allow the sealing of a civil case as long as the need for confidentiality is shown. In a recent case, I was contacted by a person who had 2 civil domestic violence injunctions cases that he wanted to seal because they were affecting his employment and personal life. In that case, both the person who filed the injunction and the person whom the injunction was against wanted the cases sealed. It certainly helped that the petition to seal both cases was a joint petition and unobjected to.

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Law Offices of
Michelle Paredes, Esq.

Mailing Address:

PO Box 144276
Coral Gables, FL 33114
Tel: 305-910-4590

We May Be Able To Help With Other Arrest Issues!

Were you the victim of excessive force By Police? Were you falsely arrested and then the charges were dropped? Email us at SealMyRecord@Gmail.Com and tell us about it. You may be entitled to monetary compensation!